Football
Adriana Garcia 5y

River Plate vs. Boca Juniors friendly cancelled amid safety fears

Next month's Superclasico between River Plate and Boca Juniors in the Mar del Plata tournament will not take place because of safety concerns, authorities have announced.

The match was initially confirmed on Mar del Plata's tourism website as the last game of the 2019 tournament.

"The Superclasico has been discarded due to the facts that everyone knows which took place in last month's Libertadores final," Mar del Plata government secretary Alejandro Vicente told the GDM radio show.

The Copa Libertadores final return leg between Boca and River was postponed last month after River hooligans attacked the Boca team bus, leaving several players and fans injured.

CONMEBOL moved the game to Madrid for security reasons, and River won 3-1 on Dec. 9 to lift the Copa Liberadores title.

The beach side resort of Mar del Plata has staged a short friendly football tournament during the summer in Argentina since 1968, with the encounter between Boca and River having been the game to conclude the event in recent years.

The tournament, which will be finalised later this week, will still go ahead.

"We expected to have five games played between the 10th and the 20th of January," Vicente said. "There is a possibility that Boca will face Aldovisi [as one of the games].

"It's a tournament that has a lot of history in our town and we, not just our citizens but also the tourists, will enjoy it. We are finalising it."

The Argentine Superliga will resume on Jan. 25 but River, who will be training in Uruguay's city of Punta del Este from Jan. 5, have to recover two postponed games before then, against Defensa y Justicia and Union.

River supporters will have to settle for watching their team take on Kashima Antlers in the third-place game at the Club World Cup on Saturday before traveling back home.

Meanwhile, River have announced they will open their Monumental stadium on Sunday to celebrate their fourth Copa Libertadores trophy with their fans.

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